920 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [32] 
The halibut do not always swim near the bottom. Isaw one leap out of 
the water where the depth was 40 fathoms, and have caught them on the 
hand-line when this was only half-way down. Several have followed 
the bait to the surface, and one even followed the thermometer up twice 
in succession. Feathers were pulled out of the mouth of one, and the 
skeleton of a gull, Larus tridactylus, was found in the stomach of another. 
D.—FISHERMEN. 
In the proceding pages I have considered the halibut from a fisher- 
man’s standpoint, and have attempted to give a clear idea of the meth- 
ods of capture, and will, in the rest of this report, pay particular atten- 
tion to the fishermen themselves. 
12._GENERAL CHARACTER OF VESSEL, CREW, AND FINANCIAL AR- 
RANGEMENT. 
The Bunker Hill is a two-masted schooner, of 100 tons burden. This 
is large for a fishing vessel, as the majority of the Gloucester vessels are 
less than 75 tons burden, and I believe there are only a few fishing 
vessels in that place as large as the Bunker Hill. The crew, including 
the captain and cook, consisted of fourteen men, and was considered 
one of the best that ever sailed from Gloucester. They certainly were 
well acquainted with their business, and, as for disposition, there was no 
sign of a quarrel during the whole summer. ‘This last is especially re- 
markable, because of the absence on board of the fishing vessels of the 
traditionally severe ship discipline. The captain, unless the cook can be 
so called, was the only officer on board. The cabin was open alike to 
all, and as the bunks, with the exception of the captain’s and my own, 
were chosen by lot, each one of the crew, providing he was sober when 
the lots were drawn, had as good a chance as his neighbor of securing 
sleeping quarters there. 
The explanation of this general freedom is probably to be found in the 
co-operative nature of the trip, the financial plan of which was about as 
follows: The owners of the vessel were to receive 46 per cent. of the 
net stock and furnished, besides the vessel, food, salt, and fishing tackle, 
while 50 per cent. of the net stock, after deducting the cost of tarring 
the rigging, refilling medicine chest, pilotage, ete., was to be divided 
into fourteen equal parts, according to the number of the crew, one part 
going to each. The captain was to receive, besides one of the fourteen 
parts, the remaining 4 per cent.* The arrangement was thus, in some 
sense, a partnership, the owners furnishing the capital and the fisher- 
men the labor, the profits to be shared in certain proportions. This 
general arrangement is not universal; for on some fishing vessels the 
men are paid a stipulated sum for the trip, the owners running the risk 
*The captain’s share is usually four cent. of the net stock, but it may vary either 
one way or the other. 
